G5 Gone Slow - Help!!

[robmanning]

Hello,

I recently had to reformat my hard drive due to some odd behaviour (the hard drive icon on the desk top became invisible and I couldn’t access anything in it). Since reformatting the initial problem has been solved but I have been left with a new problem.

I have three drives, a hard drive and an audio drive (both internal), and a Lacie Big Disk (e SATA) for all my sample libraries. Certain functions on my system have now become very slow. I am frequently shown the multicoloured swirling Apple ‘wait’ symbol and the drives can regularly be heard ‘whirring’ and waking up. For example, in Logic Pro 7 trying to open the audio window by double clicking an audio block in the arrange window often shows the multicoloured wait symbol and can take between 10-20 seconds to open the audio window. When trying to use the sustain pedal on a loaded Akoustik Piano preset, it can take about 10-20 seconds till it loads the sustain information, ie, only the first few seconds of the sample is played. Another example is when opening a new window on the desktop to browse the contents on my audio drive, the drive appears empty for about 10 -20 seconds, but then does eventually show the contents.

I have checked my ‘energy saver’ settings in System Preferences and they are set up fine (I tried the ‘never put the drives to sleep’option and this still didn’t solve the problem). I should mention that during the initial reformatting of my hard drive I did not reformat the audio drive or the Lacie Big Disk as I did not want to risk deleting any of my work.

Does this sound like a software or a hardware problem? Should I try reformatting again, and if so, should I reformat all drives?

Any help would be greatly appreciated,

Many thanks,

Rob Manning
Dual 2 GHz Power PC G5, 3 GB DDR SDRAM, OSX 10.4.9, Logic Pro 7.2.3, EWQLSO Gold PRO XP, EWQLSC, Kontakt 2, Kontakt Experience, Akoustic Piano, Quantum leap RA.

[KitC]

Last time I had a similar problem with a drive, it seemed like the system area developed some bad sectors. Try to download disk diagnostics for your drive. Mac has the Disk Utility to help you diagnose problems but it won't help with HD repair. Try looking for Data Rescue, Drive Genius or Disk Warrior to help with your HD diagnostics.

[redcomet_m]

sounds like youll need to replace a drive

[robmanning]

Hi Red,

Thanks for your help, I have posted this question on a few forums and I have been getting two main suggestions, one is replace the drive and the other (with more people saying so) is to run some sort of disk utility such as Disk Warrior.

What makes you think that it's faulty Hard Disk?

Thanks,

[KitC]

The part where you say you can hear the drive whirring and 'waking up'. Usually indicative of difficulty in reading data on the platter. You should run diagnostics whenever that happens since drives sometimes develop bad sectors over time and even the drive spindles can lock up when a bearing fails. HD diagnostics can sometimes recover data from bad sectors, but it's usually good practice to back up your data regularly and to 'ghost' your system drive so you can recover your data in the event of HD failure. Hard disks WILL fail eventually, it's only a matter of determining when.

[redcomet_m]

@rob
because i experienced the same thing dude. In a middle of an edit, the drive suddenly just vanished, like a ninja  and its no pun man, its 750GB and it aint funny

Before that happened i first heard some whirring, intermittent audible read/write activity of the disk (the disk is inside a casing and if its audible enough, there is something fishy)

Or you could use techtool pro for hd diagnos

hope it helps

[abyssinianson]

-run a disk diagnosis proggy to check for bad/ corrupt sectors.
-clicking noises usually mean that your disk is trying to write on a bad sector. an HD on a busy light for extended periods of time is usually not a good sign of HD health. starting and stopping of seek mode is another bad sign.
-if your HD has a lot of important things right now, back it up and invest in a new drive if your existing drive is shot. its better to get a new, reliable drive than trying to salvage something that may fail again in a few months if you do get it working. I had a Western Digital drive do that on me - twice! Never again.

[robmanning]

Help!!

My original problem of my HD going invisible has happened again!!

I finished a days work last night, the system was working a little bit better than it had been (due to reformatting my Lacie and Audio Drive) and when I switched it on this morning the HD icon is not apperaing on the desktop.

Am I right in thinking that this is a hardware problem/faulty drive or could Disk Warrior help this?

[abyssinianson]

have you tried updating OSX? Old shoddy OS files may contribute to your drive being not recognized by the operating system. Personally, I haven't experienced this under OSX but I have had a problem once where my CD drive was not recognized by OSX and updating the OS files seemed to fix the problem.

[jplacson]

replacing a drive is better than getting any software solution.

I've had 2 Maxtor drives go bad on me within 6/months of each other... both well under 1 year old... drives were replaced for free by dealer... but all data lost (one maxtor drive was my backup drive) ... last time I'm EVER getting Maxtor.

I've been on Seagate ever since... I still have a 10 yr old 6GB Seagate happily running WinXP on an old Pentium... hehehehe.

[robmanning]

jplacson,

Thanks for your thoughts, I think I am gonna play things cautiously too...... I have just bought two extra external hard drives to do regular Super Duper backups onto and a new Seagate internal HD so fingers crossed, I'll be covered!!

Thanks for you help,

[abyssinianson]

replacing a drive is better than getting any software solution.

I've had 2 Maxtor drives go bad on me within 6/months of each other... both well under 1 year old... drives were replaced for free by dealer... but all data lost (one maxtor drive was my backup drive) ... last time I'm EVER getting Maxtor.

I've been on Seagate ever since... I still have a 10 yr old 6GB Seagate happily running WinXP on an old Pentium... hehehehe.

Oh yes....I've had the same problem with Maxtor. I had one go bad on me at home and we had an external go bad at my laboratory. Good thing we burned all the data to DVDs periodically! I've been on Seagate ever since I had Maxtor deep six on me but I would consider Western Digital too since they seem to be much more consistent in quality than the Maxtor.

[redcomet_m]

i never trusted maxtor, western digital ever, better get seagate, fujitsu or hitachi

[KitC]

Strange hearing about your problems with maxtor since it happens to be a seagate company. I guess it varies since I have a 4 year old 80 gig maxtor that's still running while I've had seagates die on me. YMMV  I guess.

[redcomet_m]

hahaha oo nga nmn, i guess there will always be lemons amongst the best apples

[abyssinianson]

Strange hearing about your problems with maxtor since it happens to be a seagate company. I guess it varies since I have a 4 year old 80 gig maxtor that's still running while I've had seagates die on me. YMMV  I guess.

yeah, its bizarre. I currently use WD, Seagate and Hitachi with satisfactory results. I have heard good things about the samsung Spinpoints too.